Alternate Versions of Inifinite Worlds

[LoneWolf23k]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

IST: Infinite Super Teams

Take the premise of establishing one super-team per country (or region) made up of a multi-national supers, and expand it to alternate worldlines!

I mean, why have all these superhero stories about going to alternate dimensions if there isn't going to be subsequent cross-dimensional travel?*

I'm going to have to leave specifics up to individual taste: I tend to go for a "gee whiz" Silver Age style with little-to-no exploration of the consequences of worldline mingling, but I know that's not for everyone.


* This question is rhetorical. You do not need to answer it.

I had kind of a related idea, only combining Homeline with I.S.T. Earth; a world of superheroes that has relatively recently become a parachronic power, and is coming into conflict with alternate timelines with their own superbeings and other supernatural entities.

Mostly an excuse to have superheroic adventures on alternate earths, honestly.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I have toyed with using networks of worlds where the portals of each world only connect to twelve other worlds (with each type of portal associated with each zodiacal constellation). Portals would only function during the appropriate zodiacal times, only when opened by the appropriate zodiacal rituals, and could only be sensed by people that shared their zodiacal signs. I have not fully developed it yet though.

It feels to me as if it would be neater if each timeline connected to 11 other worlds, so that that timeline itself would have a Zodiacal sign, just like those it connected to.

A possible neat gimmick would be to link the twelve signs to the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, and through them to the cycle of fifths. This would open out the number of worlds, because the cycle of fifths isn't perfectly closed. You can go down a fifth, to F, B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, and G flat, or you can go up a fifth, to G, D, A, E, B, and F sharp---but F sharp and G flat aren't the same frequency. And similarly, when you go from F sharp to C sharp, that's not the same as D flat, and G sharp's not the same as A flat. So the whole thing could be open ended.

[zarawesome]

2500 States

In 1976 Earth-New York time, 50 United States capitals in 50 alternate earths opened a permanent portal to a fifty-first, "idealized" America, which almost immediately became a warzone. The current situation is half "peace between brothers", half cold war.

The alternate worlds all have some form of North American country and have a local post-1776 date. Aside from that, anything goes.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by zarawesome

2500 States

In 1976 Earth-New York time, 50 United States capitals in 50 alternate earths opened a permanent portal to a fifty-first, "idealized" America, which almost immediately became a warzone. The current situation is half "peace between brothers", half cold war.

The alternate worlds all have some form of North American country and have a local post-1776 date. Aside from that, anything goes.

That's kind of clever! But it seems like a huge amount of work to come up with fifty different variants on the basic concept, or even fifty different names. And more so if this is an example where you aren't doing fantastic elements such as magic or superscience. Could you offer a few examples?

[zarawesome]

Originally Posted by whswhs

That's kind of clever! But it seems like a huge amount of work to come up with fifty different variants on the basic concept, or even fifty different names. And more so if this is an example where you aren't doing fantastic elements such as magic or superscience. Could you offer a few examples?

You'd definitely want to use some of the pre-existing worlds. For example:

Dixie - Portal in Richmond, Virginia
Ezcalli - Portal in New Orleans, Louisiana
Gernsback - Portal in Seattle, Washington
Reich-5 - Portal in (depends how polemic you want to be)
Cornwallis or a similar British/Illuminati America - Portal in Augusta, Maine
United States of Lizardia - Portal in Tallahassee, Florida

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by zarawesome

You'd definitely want to use some of the pre-existing worlds. For example:

Dixie - Portal in Richmond, Virginia
Ezcalli - Portal in New Orleans, Louisiana
Gernsback - Portal in Seattle, Washington
Reich-5 - Portal in (depends how polemic you want to be)
Cornwallis or a similar British/Illuminati America - Portal in Augusta, Maine
United States of Lizardia - Portal in Tallahassee, Florida

I can see most of those, but if you include Ezcalli, it seems that you're using a broader definition of "United States" in your criteria than I had envisioned. Now if it were Vinland . . .

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by whswhs

That's kind of clever! But it seems like a huge amount of work to come up with fifty different variants on the basic concept, or even fifty different names. And more so if this is an example where you aren't doing fantastic elements such as magic or superscience. Could you offer a few examples?

More Examples (Portal in DC unless otherwise indicated)

1. Yankee - North secedes and wins the civil war.
2. Madison - Canada annexed in War of 1812.
3. Whiggish Dream - France conquers thirteen colonies during 18th century, only for them to successfully rebel later.
4. Bull Moose - Teddy Roosevelt wins third term and invades Mexico.
5. Estados Unidos - The Spanish Armada crushes England. About 200 years later New Spain rebels!
6. Kingfish - Huey Long forces a contingent election in '36 and becomes president in 1940, charting a populist and isolationist course.
7. Wobblies - Economic troubles caused by German victory in WW1 (Britain stayed out and no one calls it that) led to general strikes and syndicalist revolution in America.
8. Vinlandsaga - A more diplomatic approach towards the indigenous population helped Lief Ericsson's colony survive and thrive.
9. Seven United Colonies - 80 years' war and the French wars of religion end in a Catholic Victory. Fledgling colonies in New Netherlands are bolstered by large numbers of Calvinist refugees.
10. Fusang - China settles California in the 14th century, and loses interest during the Ming-Qing Transition. The colony becomes de facto independent and by the early 19th century becomes dominant in North America.
11. JFK - JFK survives Oswald's attempt, and the Tonkin incident is downplayed. It's 1968, and Nixon must face a deteriorating situation in Thailand with the support of a resolute citizenry.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by TGLS

1. Yankee - North secedes and wins the civil war.
2. Madison - Canada annexed in War of 1812.
3. Whiggish Dream - France conquers thirteen colonies during 18th century, only for them to successfully rebel later.
4. Bull Moose - Teddy Roosevelt wins third term and invades Mexico.
5. Estados Unidos - The Spanish Armada crushes England. About 200 years later New Spain rebels!
6. Kingfish - Huey Long forces a contingent election in '36 and becomes president in 1940, charting a populist and isolationist course.
7. Wobblies - Economic troubles caused by German victory in WW1 (Britain stayed out and no one calls it that) led to general strikes and syndicalist revolution in America.
8. Vinlandsaga - A more diplomatic approach towards the indigenous population helped Lief Ericsson's colony survive and thrive.
9. Seven United Colonies - 80 years' war and the French wars of religion end in a Catholic Victory. Fledgling colonies in New Netherlands are bolstered by large numbers of Calvinist refugees.
10. Fusang - China settles California in the 14th century, and loses interest during the Ming-Qing Transition. The colony becomes de facto independent and by the early 19th century becomes dominant in North America.
11. JFK - JFK survives Oswald's attempt, and the Tonkin incident is downplayed. It's 1968, and Nixon must face a deteriorating situation in Thailand with the support of a resolute citizenry.

Okay, those are entertaining. You can find a model for Bull Moose in S.M. Stirling's Black Chamber novels, and one for Kingfish in Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here.

[zarawesome]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I can see most of those, but if you include Ezcalli, it seems that you're using a broader definition of "United States" in your criteria than I had envisioned. Now if it were Vinland . . .

I would want at least a couple Americas that were never colonized from Europe. Maybe a variant of Ezcalli with North America independent to some degree, and definitely a union of Native American neo-states.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by zarawesome

I would want at least a couple Americas that were never colonized from Europe. Maybe a variant of Ezcalli with North America independent to some degree, and definitely a union of Native American neo-states.

Well, the Iroquois Confederacy seems to have been something the Founders were aware of. You might look at it as a starting point.

In the original GURPS Steampunk, which I wrote, one of the four timelines is Qabala, a "steampunk" world based on golems rather than steam engines. It had the Cherokee encouraging Jewish immigration and some of them seeking to convert to Judaism, hoping to gain golem technology.